GTD Women

[kelstarrising]

What kind of content would any of you (male or female!) like to see that addresses GTD for women? As a female staff person at The David Allen Company, and a longtime personal user and fan of GTD and David's work, I am intrigued by comments from some people that GTD is geared more for men. I haven't found that to be the case in its application or appeal. We are actually a company predominantly staffed by women! Even at the GTD Summit, while there were fewer female panelists by far, there were a huge number of women in attendance that I connected with personally. I'm not looking to change anyone's opinions on that, since each of us come from our own unique perspective, but I would like to see if there is anything we can do for GTD Connect members to make it more appealing for all.

Are there any topics our Coaches can address around GTD for women that you would like to see? Please post your replies here, or send us an email at connect@davidco.com.

Cheers,
Kelly

 

[sdann]

I'm very glad you are touching upon women and GTD. I think most women have different concerns in place of or in addition to those of most men.

1. Women are mostly the primary caregivers. This is true for their children and elderly family members that need extra care. Just by that alone, women have to manage the calendars, projects and actions for themselves and for others. There are so many things to consider: organized activities, doctor's visits, homework, clean socks, etc. I know many men take a very active part in their children's lives, but for the most part the women are the primary caregivers.

2. Women are usually in charge of the household. I know that the @home and their s/m tasks can be enormous for women. Shopping, meal planning, cooking, clean-up, laundry, special organizing projects, etc. We all know the list can be endless. Add this to the family and a career...

3. Women do #1 and 2 and then also pursue a career. Many women are very successful family managers and career women. Most need outside help and use it, but I can't see it being that easy for all in this economy.

4. Another issue that I find rather lacking is GTD gear specifically designed for women. Not many women will put a hpda in their hip or blouse pocket, for example. How about non-purse accessories that don't look like fanny packs? That is never addressed anywhere.

Silke

 

[Barb]

Good points

I agree with all Silke said. I don't see that women "don't get" GTD, as some are suggesting over at GTD Times. I just see our breadth of focus as much larger than many men, in some cases anyway.

I'd add to what Silke said, too, by saying that women often have to organize OTHERS around them in order to make things run. In my case, it's my husband's around-the-house stuff (he refuses to "remember" anything I ask him to do). I can only imagine what kids would add to that mix! I have the aging parent thing to deal with and BELIEVE ME I do notice my brother is completely uninvolved.

Kelly: Obviously, we realize you are also female...and we know that many on your staff are female. I just don't see household stuff addressed much by Connect. This is an observation, not a criticism.

I feel a little funny about even responding to this post...I felt more "dared" than genuinely encouraged to respond. Maybe it's just me. I wasn't at the Summit so can't speak to who showed up. But I DID notice the "stars" were all men. I wasn't offended, but I can't say I think that was the best choice either. I would assume the absence of minorities was noticed by some as well.

 

[kelstarrising]

Thanks!

Thanks! I appreciate your replies and we welcome whatever members want to share with us, on the Forums or directly to us by email.

I am genuinely interested in adding content to Connect for all members that's the kind of content you'd like to see. You may be happy to hear that I have a fabulous audio post from Meg Edwards on GTD & kids that will be coming soon to In The Trenches. She has a wonderful perspective on doing GTD with her daughter.

All the best,
Kelly

 

[Barb]

Right on

Thanks! I appreciate your replies and we welcome whatever members want to share with us, on the Forums or directly to us by email.

I am genuinely interested in adding content to Connect for all members that's the kind of content you'd like to see. You may be happy to hear that I have a fabulous audio post from Meg Edwards on GTD & kids that will be coming soon to In The Trenches. She has a wonderful perspective on doing GTD with her daughter.

All the best,
Kelly

Kelly,
I think that will help MANY people...not just women. Meg is terrific and that's good content!

 

[Oogiem]

Those 4 are very important.

I think that the numbers of projects and next actions are much higher for most women because of the additional areas they must manage.

GTD methods seem to break down in handling of routine recurring tasks and household management.

The lack of well designed gear for women is critical. We can't all cary a purse all the time and my own solution, a belt pouch I made myself, is clunky and certainly not fashionable. Now I admit that looking like a model just isn't going to happen on a farm but I'd still like to have more choices.

 

[sdann]

I'm going to second what you said about the GTD Summit, Barb. On the speakers' page on the summit website, the first woman featured was the 26th face down the page. I don't like emphasizing this in part because it shouldn't be necessary anymore. It is also a very sore subject with most women, at least for those I know. A big focus for the coming year and next summit should be to be more inclusive. Do I like to post this on the forum? No. But obviously I would like my opinion on this matter to be known.

 

[Barb]

It shouldn't matter, Silke...and probably doesn't matter to most women...but that fact that we even NOTICED the unrepresentation of women and minorities at the summit probably means it DOES matter to some. David even commented on it so either someone said something to him or he noticed it himself.

Just from a purely marketing standpoint--however subtle it may be--if you look at 30 pictures of presenters and you see may one woman and one minority male, are you going to see that event as someplace where you fit if you are female or a minority? Like I said, it's going to be very subtle..or even subconscious.

This is an interesting discussion. Not beating up on Davidco for sure, though. I'm an HR Guru so this stuff interests me (smile).

 

[kelstarrising]

Again, thanks for sharing your points of view! This is rich conversation on 3 different topics:

- Women panelists at the Summit
- Women being drawn (or not) to GTD
- GTD Gear and Connect Content tailored for women

I will pass along your feedback about gear to our products team, and will continue to work with our Coaches on creating great content for you all.

 

[Barb]

Way too interesting

Kelly,

I was thinking back to all the Connect "In Conversations". I think I remember two(Julie Flagg and a woman that owns a specialty insurance company). Have there been any others?

This might be a good rabbit trail to run down!

Note to all: Kelly works nights and weekends. It's nice to have someone actually respond to Connect Forum stuff. In the past (other than Kelly), it really seemed to take awhile for a staff member to chime in.

 

[GTDWorks]

I find a lot of the thoughtful posts come from the the women who work with and enjoy using GTD. We're all richer for their insightful contribution.

Thank you!

 

[industryofcool]

My view on this is that women do a lot of GTD stuff more naturally than men. While reading the book I often discovered that my girlfriend (who hasn't read GTD yet) was doing a lot of things mentioned in the book.

I know all of us do GTD more or less but she for instance keeps lists in her purse of thing (books etc) she wants to buy so when she is at a store she knows what to buy. Another example is this project manager I have working for me whom I told some GTD stuff who often said ' but i already work that way'.

So maybe us men are more chaotic than women en that's why we need a system more and thats also why it possibly has the most impact on men. I know it really changed my life ...

 

[GTDWorks]

My wife and I both utilize GTD and she seems to quite naturally flow with the whole process.

Interesting post. Thanks, Kelly.

 

[TesTeq]

My wife has GTD built-in.

Are there any topics our Coaches can address around GTD for women that you would like to see?

My wife has GTD built-in. She always asks me how it is possible that David Allen sells books and gives seminars about making action lists. She's a natural-born GTDer!

 

[darlakbrown]

I personally don't connect well with the GTD Times blog most of the time because it feels like more of male dominated perspective... I'm subscribed to it but I usually skip over the articles. I much prefer the info provided by GTD Connect and the GTD coaches.

I disagree that women don't get GTD. In my household, my fiancee doesn't get GTD. And I do.

It's true that women naturally multitask in many roles. However, GTD actually helped me create space and time for myself. I think as a result of doing so much, women tend to take care of everyone and everything else. GTD helped me focus on myself and become a more balanced person. --- Sure, as a single mother I already had the hard landscape down before hearing about GTD. But, the real genius of GTD for me was creating my own Areas of Focus! That is how GTD helped me the most. My career was on track. My son was taken care of.. But the real Aha! for me came when GTD helped me carve out time and projects that I wanted and needed to do. It's very cool!

 

[Julie_Flagg]

Julie Flagg

I was also interested that the panel was predominantly male. It reminded me of when I started my surgical training 20 years ago when my trainers were all men, most of whom were glad to have women "on board". Several times I was told that I operated like a man- I don't really know what that means.
I have been coached by two fabulous GTD women Marion Bateman and Karen Mroz. I have been coached on the phone by Meg Edwards and Kathryn Allen has taken my calls when I have specific questions- all have been very helpful.
I have worked with a terrific nurse for 20 years and I absolutely can not get her to even discuss GTD. As I stopped by her desk tonight, it is festoon with post its everywhere -enough to make me dizzy. Never the less she keeps track of her tasks and projects and has a wonderful family that she attends to as well as she does her job with our practice.
I noted that Randy Fullhart mentioned Frances Hesselbein ( a fascinating woman- Chairman of the Drucker Foundation) a couple of times. Since the meeting, I have read a couple of her books which are very very good. I note that Marshall Goldsmith talked about women and how self critical and ultraperfectionistic we can be. I'd love to communicate with him more about this.
David has interviewed some terrific women "in conversation"- so I don't believe that women are being denied by GTD- perhaps women have already set up their own systems as they have cared for their work, children, husband, and parents.
I am in the process of transisioning our management team to GTD. It is half women and half men. I know that my accountant was up all night reading Getting Things Done. It didn't seem to resonate as much for the women.
I can only speak for myself. GTD made sense from the moment that I picked up the book in 2001. Since then I have been coached, reread the book and read Making It All Happen. I have made a huge white board of my own gtd system since the summitt.
I would love to see more women adopt GTD but recognize that for some reason it seems to resonate more with men- perhaps women already have their own GTD system.
I thought that Kelly's ELearning program was fabulous- she obviously utterly gets it. I think that this is going to be an amazing tool to spread GTD and increase effective adoption of the GTD approach. Well done Kelly!

 

[lauraon]

gtd mom

kelly,

i'm very new to gtd, i found my way here because i kept seeing gtd mentioned on websites i had googled. i haven't found anything about the company or method that i felt was condescending to me. i appreciate the professional, but not uptight, demeanor of the staff.

i am trying to digest and implement gtd as a former commercial-real-estate-broker-turned-mother-of-six. when i was in sales, i was given a lot of excellent time management/goal-setting etc. training. i really benefitted from what i learned, but it became clear to me very quickly, that i had to learn how to adapt those methods to integrate interruptions and "nurturing" into my management. gtd seems to help me do this naturally, with the confidence that the system understands goals,balance, and people(!).

there are lot of wonderful women out there to whom this comes naturally, but i always had a cognitive dissonance, a mental block. well, david allen karate chopped that block, first in half, then into slivers! i think that gtd looks at efficiency in a properly ordered way, not trying to turn people into machines. gtd seems to respect our humanity while trying to free up more of our time to concentrate on our higher purpose! - laura

 

[pf07027]

GTD and women

Hi Kelly, Great Question!

I'm a little late here, just wanted to add my two cents..
For me, GTD has been great at helping me manage my work stuff---it seems to be geared for that, but it is lacking on the home/family management side (which I'm guessing is a big issue for many women--it is for me). I have applied GTD at home, but only with moderate success. Now I am pregnant with my first child and want to apply GTD as a working mom to work/home/my child.

I certainly see this content expansion starting with the recent teleseminar on GTD @ home, Meg's info on kids, etc. David has interviewed some great women for InConversation but the focus has been more on the career side of their lives. In fact, I have gotten some great "family" tips from the male interviews. I love those types of tips, and would like to hear more about that side of people's lives too. My dream InConversation would be David interviewing a working mother talking about her system of using GTD to manage her family (with lots of detail). Alternately, an interview with a man talking about "family" management with lots of detail would be great as well.

I don't personally think GTD is inherently more "male." I just think it is inherently more "career" focused vs. "home/family" focused. As a woman, I feel like I need some extra help on the home/family side and therefore would love to see more here.

One of the best things about the GTD staff...you guys ask for/appreciate feedback! Keep it up.